London – This April, Bonhams presents A Modern Antiquarian: The Collection of Graham Slater, featuring delftware that is being offered in support of Art Fund, along with early English Pottery, Coins, and Works of Art. Highlights include a 17th-century London Delftware 'La Fecundite' dish (estimate: £30,000 - 50,000); a gold Elizabethan Coronation Crown featuring an enthroned Elizabeth I (estimate £8,000 - 10,000), and works of art by major Modern British artists such as Patrick Heron, John Piper and Edward Bawden.

The sale will be sold in two parts: Part I will be a live auction at Bonhams New Bond Street on Tuesday 15 April. Part II is an online sale, which will be on view with Part I, and will end on Wednesday 16 April.

Graham Slater's collection is a testament to his passion as a collector and his generous gift to Art Fund is a tribute to the charity's work supporting the UK's museums and galleries. Part of the Graham Slater bequest has been facilitated by the collector's children Corinna Slater (estate executor) and son Crispin Slater in support of Art Fund.

The sale of the English Delftware Collection will support Art Fund's work with museums across the UK, specifically its funding for museum professionals through the Expanding Horizons campaign – a major investment in expertise and development opportunities for people who bring museum collections to life, from curators to conservators, educators to exhibition-makers.

Charlie Thomas, UK Group Director for House Sales and Private & Iconic Collections, commented: "Graham was a collector in the old-fashioned sense of the word, a real scholar who surrounded himself with objects and then learnt everything there was about the objects he collected. We are delighted to be able to bring this collection to auction, especially as the sale is in support of Art Fund which will cement Graham's amazing legacy and enable his passion for art and historic ceramics, coins and artefacts to be nurtured in others."

Highlights of the sale include:

• A London delftware 'La Fecundite' dish by the potter 'WP', circa 1657-59. Estimate: £30,000 - 50,000.

• Patrick Heron (British, 1920-1999), FEBRUARY 8 1984. Estimate: £10,000 - 15,000.

• Patrick Heron (British, 1920-1999), MINI FEBRUARY I: 1974. Estimate: £10,000 - 15,000.

• An English medieval anthropomorphic jug, 13th century. Estimate: £8,000 - 12,000.

• An English delftware charger, blue dash rim, circa 1714. Estimate: £7,000 - 10,000.

• An Elizabeth I 1558-1603 coin. Estimate: £8,000 - 10,000.

• Book of Hours, Use of Rome. Hore divine virginis Marie secundum usum Romanum, illuminates and printed on vellum. 28 lines within red and gold border, 88 leaves, 10 full-page illuminated woodcuts heightened in gold. Estimate: £5,000 – 8,000.

Graham Slater (1927-2024) began collecting aged 5, when his father, an underwriter at Lloyds, gave him foreign stamps. By the age of 7, Graham had discovered Matchbox toys, before moving on to search market stalls around a London scarred by the Blitz, for prints (a favourite artist was Wencelas Hollar) and early English books. A sojourn in Malta to improve an asthma condition inspired a taste for archaeology and geology, prompting him to delve into fossils. At one point, he discovered an unlikely taste for Indian sculpture which he shared with his equally committed wife, Rosemary. Spurred by her, he assembled a collection which was sold, reluctantly, when a profusion of English delftware demanded far more display space at home in Cambridge.

Slater was fascinated by relics of late-medieval London, by English ecclesiastical architecture, by wooden objects and memorabilia in essentially rustic English taste. His devoted wife shared these unlikely fascinations, including his love of mudlarking, exploring the banks of the Thames for fragments washed up by each new tide. He and Rosemary focused their most valuable acquisitions into 17th and 18th-century English domestic artefacts, including delftware, decorative works of art, drinking glasses, vernacular woodwork and furniture, as well early coins. At one point the couple owned a small antique shop in Bexhill-on-Sea.

Even in his 90s, Graham still enjoyed the thrill of the chase, and the attribution of delft and early stoneware vessels to specific kilns preoccupied him for decades. He was acknowledged as a leading academic authority in English delft.

Art Fund is the national charity for UK museums, galleries and historic houses. For over 120 years, Art Fund has helped museums and galleries across the UK to develop and share collections, invest in workforce and expertise, and grow audiences.

Independent and people-powered, Art Fund is supported by 142,000 members who buy a National Art Pass, as well as generous individuals, trusts and foundations.

The National Art Pass offers free or discounted entry to hundreds of museums, galleries and historic places, 50% off major exhibitions, and a subscription to Art Quarterly magazine.

To find out more about supporting Art Fund and our work with museums and galleries, please contact Scarlett Millar. Head of Individual Giving at [email protected].

To find more about Art Fund, visit www.artfund.org.